Ocean City Council moves meeting to handle large Wonderland hotel crowd

City Council is moving the location of Thursday night’s meeting to a bigger venue to accommodate the large public turnout expected for more debate on the $150 million luxury resort hotel proposed on the Ocean City Boardwalk.

Council may vote on a resolution that would ask the city’s planning board to consider declaring the former Wonderland Pier amusement park as an area “in need of rehabilitation” to boost the hotel project.

The resolution is on the meeting agenda, but Council President Terry Crowley Jr. said he is unsure at this point whether there will even be a vote “up, down or sideways” by the seven-member governing body.

“There are seven people, and I don’t know how it will go,” Crowley said in an interview Monday night, shortly after the agenda was publicly released.

Instead of the usual location in the Council chambers at City Hall, the 6 p.m. meeting Thursday will be held in the large auditorium of the Ocean City Music Pier on the Boardwalk.

Crowley said he consulted with Mayor Jay Gillian and other city officials and it was decided to move the meeting to a bigger venue to safety accommodate the large crowd expected to attend.

“Whether you’re for or against the hotel, safety is the highest priority,” he said.

    The Ocean City Music Pier will be the location of Thursday night's Council meeting.
  

The proposed hotel has been the most controversial issue in Ocean City in years – bitterly dividing the community among hotel supporters and opponents in an emotional public debate that has dragged on for months.

The presidents of both the Boardwalk Merchants Association and the Downtown Merchants Association are urging residents and business owners to attend Thursday’s meeting to show their support for the hotel project.

At the same time, the anti-hotel community group Ocean City 2050 wants opponents to come to the meeting to voice their concerns about the project.

Developer Eustace Mita, owner of the Wonderland property, has asked the city to approve the rehabilitation designation for his proposed 252-room resort hotel in place of the old amusement park.

Declaring the Wonderland site in need of rehabilitation would help to fast-track the zoning approvals for the hotel project. Currently, hotel construction is not permitted in the area of the Boardwalk where the Wonderland property is located at Sixth Street.

In a 6-1 vote on Aug. 21, Council rejected the rehabilitation designation for the Wonderland site. Instead, Crowley formed a nine-member advisory subcommittee in October to take a comprehensive look at the entire Boardwalk’s commercial zoning needs – not just one area – in concert with the city’s master plan.

So far, only Council Vice President Pete Madden has voted in favor of the rehabilitation designation for the Wonderland site. But Councilman Jody Levchuk raised the issue again at the Nov. 20 meeting, arguing in favor of a revote at Thursday’s meeting.

    In October, City Council President Terry Crowley Jr. announced the formation of a subcommittee to study the zoning for the Boardwalk's commercial areas.
  

Referring to the abandoned Wonderland site, Levchuk said it is simply unacceptable to allow that part of the Boardwalk to remain empty. He noted the broader impact of Wonderland’s closing has caused some of the nearby Boardwalk stores to shut down.

Levchuk indicated that the proposed hotel – or perhaps even another type of project – might be the best way to revitalize the Wonderland site. He wants Council to take another look at the possibility of declaring the property in need of rehabilitation to help pave the way for its redevelopment. Councilman Tony Polcini also expressed support for a revote.

At least four Council votes would be needed to approve the resolution asking the planning board to consider the rehabilitation status for the Wonderland site. Based on interviews with some of the Council members, approval seems unlikely at this point.

Council members Dave Winslow, Sean Barnes and Keith Hartzell all said they would prefer to wait for the advisory subcommittee’s zoning recommendations for the Boardwalk’s commercial areas before even considering a rehabilitation designation for the Wonderland site.

“Nothing has changed since August. I would not be in favor of it,” Barnes said in remarks similar to what Winslow and Hartzell also had to say about the issue.

Winslow serves as chairman of the subcommittee, which includes representatives from the local government, business community, planning board and the public. He explained that the subcommittee has been busy carrying out its mission and is expected to hold a public meeting in February to announce its recommendations.

“We are full steam ahead,” Winslow said of the subcommittee’s progress so far.

    Councilman Dave Winslow heads the advisory subcommittee.
  

Crowley declined to say how he intends to vote – if there even is a vote – ahead of the meeting. But he indicated he believes there is no need to rush ahead with the Wonderland resolution before the subcommittee completes its work.

“I haven’t even gotten one report from them yet,” Crowley said of the subcommittee’s work still being in the early stage.

Owned by Mayor Gillian’s family, the Wonderland Pier amusement park was a fixture on the Boardwalk for nearly 60 years, but closed down in October 2024 following years of financial difficulty.

Mita bought the property in 2021 for a reported $14 million to save it from a sheriff’s auction. He allowed Gillian to continue operating the park until it failed last year. Once the park was closed, Mita proposed to build his hotel project in place of the vacant amusement park.

In August, Mita’s attorney, Keith Davis, described the amusement park’s deteriorating condition while arguing in favor of the rehabilitation designation to help speed along the hotel’s development.

“This deterioration affects not only the pier structure itself, but also its underlying structural support and the remnants of the former amusement rides. As a result of this environmental stress and extended deterioration due to lack of proper maintenance, the condition of the pier and associated attractions has fallen well below modern safety and operational standards. To ensure the property's viability for long-term use, comprehensive remedial work, including significant structural rehabilitation or full replacement, is required,” Davis wrote in an Aug. 13 letter to City Council.

    Wonderland Pier's sprawling facade overlooks the Boardwalk at Sixth Street.
  

The leaders of the Ocean City business community have been calling on Council to take another vote on the rehabilitation issue, saying that a large-scale hotel would serve as a catalyst for economic growth and tourism in town.

Hotel opponents believe the project would overwhelm the surrounding neighborhoods and would not fit in with Ocean City’s family-friendly image.

Mita was angry when Council voted down the Wonderland resolution in August. He responded by declaring the hotel project dead. Shortly afterward, he put the property up for sale for $25 million.

Since then, Mita has said he has received separate buyout offers for the Wonderland site from the national homebuilding company Ryan Homes and the politically connected Norcross family consisting of brothers George and Philip. Mita said Ryan Homes and the Norcross family both want to build townhomes on the site, although residential-type construction is currently not allowed on that section of the Boardwalk.

In an interview Friday with OCNJDaily.com, Mita said a combination of city officials and local business leaders asked him to delay the sale a while to see what Council will do with the Wonderland resolution at Thursday’s meeting.

“I’m certainly willing to wait a little while to see what we can come up with,” he said of the possibility of holding off on the sale for a bit.

Although Mita says he may be willing to delay the sale for now, he also made it clear that he has no intention of waiting a long time for the city to take action.

“I have to know if it’s a no or a go,” he said.